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Friday, August 29, 2008

Thursday afternoon, I took MM to meet his new teacher and see his classroom. He was so excited. He loved the classroom, loved that he gets his! Very! Own! Desk! With his name on it, even! He loves that there's a shelf underneath it with books! Already! He loves that his teacher put together a get-to-know-your-classroom scavenger hunt and that he was one of the few kids in the class who read it and wrote his answers without any help.

On our way there, I asked him, "Do you think Miss B will be tall or short?""Short.""Thin or fat?""Thin.""Glasses or no glasses?""No glasses.""Freckles or no freckles?""Freckles.""Nail polish or no nail polish?""No nail polish."

He was right in every respect except freckles. She hasn't got any. She also looks a lot like his music teacher from Posh Place, so he feels comfortable with her right away and feels like he's got the ability to predict what life will be like in her class.

It seems that the curriculum may be more laid back at his new school than it was at Posh Place, but that he will be given more responsibility. That's fine with me as long as he remains excited about learning and mastering new things. The focus will be on literacy skills, which he already has in spades. They only get music, art, and Spanish once a week each --- Posh Place has them every day --- and art is really something he loves, so I'm hoping that they'll get time to draw in class as well.

And that's all there is to report at the moment...We'll know more after Tuesday!

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Got an email with a link to a website where I could fill out all the paperwork (direct deposit, W4, I9, yada yada yada) on-line. And then I printed it out and also saved soft copies. All that's left is for me to bring proof of citizenship with me on Tuesday.

I put the olive oil in my largest skillet and heated it up. I took the Leg o' Lamb out of its package, poured the juices into the slow cooker and put the LOL into the skillet to brown on one side for 5 minutes.Meanwhile, I rinsed the mint and parsley and began taking their leaves off their stems and putting them into the chopper attachment for my stick blender (mine is older than this and didn't come with a whisk).Then I turned the meat over to brown on the other side for another 5 minutes.Meanwhile, I added the garlic to the chopper attachment and pulverized the garlic, mint, and parsley into a lovely aromatic mash which I scraped into the slow cooker. I added 3 cups of water and one of wine. I added the package of onion soup mix. I stirred. Added the carrots. Stirred.

I brought the slow cooker pot over to the stove and placed the meat lovingly therein.

I scraped all the brown yummy bits off the bottom of the pan and added them to the mix.

Saturday, August 23, 2008

MM's had a fever since Tuesday night. Finally, finally, he's back to normal today so that we can go on a bloggy playdate with a fellow Whiner and her two children.

His illness made me miss lunch with APL, darn it, but we're rescheduling for next week.

His fever was one that the pediatric NP we saw on Wednesday says is going around and lasts about 4 days. It had no other symptoms (although now he's got sort of a phlegmy cough). He wasn't even very grumpy.

Thank goodness my job DIDN'T start last week so that staying home wasn't an issue.

Oh! And my job won't start next week either, because they haven't finished digging into my past yet. The things we go through to get a job around here.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

I don't know if I've told you folks, but MM will be riding the Big Yellow Bus pretty soon. Kind of ridiculous since his school is within walking distance of our house, but necessary since it is beyond where the sidewalk ends. To get to school using a path with sidewalks would mean walking a mile around the school and coming in from the opposite direction.

Thus, the bus.

It will arrive on our corner every weekday morning at 0729 starting two weeks from today.

We are used to waking up at 0730. You see the problem.

So this week we're practicing. We all wake up somewhere around 0700, get dressed, eat breakfast, walk to the bus-stop (right across the street from our house), wait until 0729, and then go back indoors to play with PlasticBricksFromHolland until it's time to go to day camp.

It's already pretty obvious that we're going to have to move the wake up time up a bit. MM was unable to finish eating breakfast within the time-frame we've currently got.

Saturday, August 02, 2008

MM, who is now sporting the classic 6-year-old smile (great big gap there in the middle where two teeth used to be), is going to sleep over at DeepVoicedFirstGrader's house tomorrow night. The following three nights he will spend at my SIL's house. Because MS and I will be at a conference in CityWithFamousIslandPrison, 3000 miles away.

For four days.

MM is staying at DVFG's house tomorrow night because MS and I are leaving on a 0705 plane and MM's daycamp doesn't open until 0630. DVFG's mom will take them both to daycamp later in the morning.

He's been looking forward to staying with SIL for months. MONTHS. And not just because my BIL has every Lego Star Wars kit known to man-kind.

But I am sitting here, filled with wonder that my baby is a gap-smiled six-year-old who is going off on sleep-overs, and wondering what the hell I'm thinking leaving my baby for 4 days. MY BABY.